Hi, I have been a bit slow to going over my whopping
stuffed inbox, and it's taken a long time getting to things, however, I
just really noticed this message here below that my good friend Paul
sent me, and if this message is accurate, I must say, this sounds like
wonderful news!

Okay... I remember a few months back there was a
valiant effort to get a lot of us together on fighting this issue and
petitioning and everything to make this happen... Then it seemed things
fizzled out and I stopped hearing from anyone anymore... So did some of
us back together without me knowing and pull it off? Great job if so!!!
I can't believe all this happened without me even knowing it... Have I
been left out in the cold? But anyway you guys let me know what you're
all up to... I want to definitely keep in touch on these issues and not
fall out of the loop...

Brenden Garrett

Forwarded message from Paul:

This is so HUGE!!

Hi everyone, I have been trying to confirm this story
for about five-six hours. I have saved as many addresses as I could,
that have cared, and helped bears for alerting you to either something
really horrible, or something extremely great (which never seems to
happen) about news for the bears of the world.

Tonight it's the latter.

MY GOD!!! A MIRACLE HAS HAPPENED IN ALASKA. This is so
HUGE!!

The voices for bears is ROARING. May this news story
remind all of us to not NOT take any crap in putting a stop to the evil
against the bear, anywhere. I could not ever have imagined this outcome
for the McNeil River Game Sanctuary, Alaska Bears.

PLEASE keep in touch and thank you for your care for
the BEAR. I truly hope that you all are doing very well, and then
some...

It is the greatest concentration of these huge creatures
anywhere in the world — sometimes 30 bears gather at a time — and the
world's best viewing spot for the hundreds of visitors, drawn by
lottery, who come each year to witness the spectacle. CBS News
correspondent Jerry Bowen reports.

The McNeil River runs through a state game sanctuary, which means the
bears are safe here. They can't be hunted by humans, only viewed. It’s
been that way for more than 30 years.

And it's a mutually beneficial encounter. The bears get their fish. The
visitors get an eyeful, and both survive to tell the story.

And that is why tens of thousands of bear lovers around the world were
shocked that State of Alaska game managers planned to make it easer for
trophy hunters to kill some of these very same bears.

Protective no-hunting buffer zones on the edge of the sanctuary were to
be opened to big game guides and their clients starting this July.
Critics said the far ranging people-tolerant bears from McNeil would be
easy pickings.

"These bears come up to you and lay down and nurse their cubs and take
naps,” says Ken Day, a float plane tour operator. ”They feel protected
by you .. the way we describe it is like shooting your neighbors' dogs.
It’s heartbreaking."

This past week Alaska’s board of game got an ear- and eyeful: 10,000
letters and petitions from bear lovers. And this question: with 35,000
brown bears roaming all over Alaska, why jeopardize the 100 or so that
call McNeil River home?

"McNeil River bears are the pride of the entire state,” says Dorothy
Keeler of Alaska Wildlife Alliance. “It's the crown jewel of the
wildlife viewing experience in the state."

In the end, the board turned bearish and
reversed its decision.

Come this summer,
those hungry giants will feast in safety at McNeil, and beyond the
sanctuary borders. And awe-struck visitors will still come loaded for
bears — with cameras. Knowing the creatures they see will most likely be
back at McNeil for generations to come.